The most cheerful act of your whole life

"If you have ever truly believed in Jesus Christ, my friends, it has not been the languid act of a cold, impenitent, unwilling heart—but your whole souls have exerted their utmost vigor in it, and it has been the most cheerful, animated act of your whole lives!

"When God shined into your hearts, to give you the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ, when you received the first glances of his glorious righteousness, and heard, as with new ears, the offer of it in the gospel—stand, and pause, and recollect—what were your sentiments, and the temper of your heart in that important and memorable hour?

"Was not their language, ‘When I see your glory, O lovely Savior, I most cheerfully consent to the method of salvation revealed in the gospel, not only because I must—but because I choose to do so. I see it is a scheme well ordered in all things, and sure, and therefore it is all my salvation and all my desire. I would not only be saved—but I would be saved by you, blessed Jesus! I am willing, I am desirous, that you, and not I, should have the glory of it. Pardon is sweet to a guilty criminal; salvation is sweet to a perishing soul; but oh! pardon by your righteousness, salvation through your grace, this is doubly sweet!’"

— Samuel Davies
"The Nature of Justification, and the Nature and Concern of Faith In It"